The Buzz Before Business: A Design Science Study of a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

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Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

Date

2021-02

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Language

en

Pages

24

Series

Small Business Economics, Volume 56, issue 3, pp. 1097-1120

Abstract

This paper examines how entrepreneurial opportunities co-evolve within a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem (SEE). Most of the literature on entrepreneurial ecosystems falls short on integrating the entrepreneurial process in empirical research. To analyze data collected from pre-start-up teams within a nascent SEE on high-tech cellulose-based materials over 3 years, we apply a design science approach that helps understand actors’ collaborative sensemaking in designing and structuring ecosystem features and relationships. Our findings show that the SEE can be seen as a design artifact which evolves by ecosystem actors collectively engaging in new venture ideation and developing opportunity confidence. Furthermore, the paper presents a novel SEE framework, which elaborates on phases and enablers of the opportunity co-evolution process within an emerging ecosystem. We contribute to the literature on sustainable as well as general entrepreneurial ecosystems and offer a new theoretical foundation for a process view on ecosystems.

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Keywords

Design science study, Entrepreneurial ecosystem, Buzz, Opportunity process, Sustainable entrepreneurship

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Citation

O'Shea, G, Farny, S & Hakala, H 2021, ' The Buzz Before Business : A Design Science Study of a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystem ', Small Business Economics, vol. 56, no. 3, pp. 1097-1120 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-019-00256-4